Free Republic

On CNN today, Maggie Haberman of the New York Times argued that women in the Trump administration, particularly Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, are unfairly subjected to more criticism than their male counterparts. Alisyn Camerota seconded Haberman’s notion. Chris Cuomo initially pushed back a bit, but ultimately joined the party, saying: “The lookism stuff. Saturday Night Live, when they first went after Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and it was about how she looked and how she dresses. It was obnoxious. And that happens to Kellyanne all the time when she goes on. That’s wrong too. No question about it.” Get...

Some might consider it an ugly truth that attractive people are often more successful than those less blessed with looks. But now our appearance is emerging in legal disputes as a new kind of discrimination. ‘Lookism’, it is claimed, is the new racism, and should be banished from civilised societies. It is currently the subject of several court actions in America, and some experts say similar cases should be considered here too. Economist Daniel Hamermesh argues that ugliness is no different from race or a disability, and suggests unattractive people deserve legal protection. ‘My research shows being good-looking helps you...

"Lookism" is a crime most foul in a perfect world devised by radical feminists, though most women will usually overlook the crime when a good-looking man gives them a respectful once-over. But researchers in England, source of our common law, have identified a real crime: Jurors are more likely to convict "ugly" defendants than "attractive" defendants. The investigators are from Bath Spa University in Bath, the lovely Somerset resort where Beau Nash set down rules of polite society and where Chaucer set his morality tale of a witch who gave an errant knight his choice of a wife "foul and...

Hello. This Friday, I host "20/20." I'm doing the whole hour on what we call "lookism," giving examples of how good-looking people (and taller men) get better treatment. We like to think of America as a meritocracy. We value people because of their character, or generosity, or intelligence ... but why then does 37th-ranked tennis player Anna Kournikova make hundreds of thousands of dollars more than other top woman athletes? Kournikova hasn't even won a major tournament. Was JFK Jr. covered so relentlessly by the press solely because he was the son of a president? And would we have cared...